To Connect and be Heard: Informal Dimension of School Mealtimes Represented by Students’ Self-initiated YouTube Videos

Abstract

This qualitative observational study examines Finnish students’ self-initiated YouTube videos of school mealtimes, leaning theoretically on childhood sociology and social constructionist philosophy. Conceptualization of formal and informal dimensions of school mealtimes supported an examination of social media as a tool for children and young people for creative content production and expressions of agency, while acknowledging how their activities challenged formal rules and restrictions. The study shows how YouTube enabled students to construct cool and fun spaces within school mealtimes and provided them ways to voice their opinions of its formal contents. However, the publicity of social media resulted also with collisions between formal and informal dimensions, as the differing norms of online and offline contexts clashed. Overall, results illustrate social meanings of school mealtimes for students, their expressions of agency in relation to institutional boundaries and YouTube as a pathway for children and young people to connect and be heard.